1/12/2016

If you've followed the many teasers and TV spots forStar Wars: The Force Awakens, you may have noticed some of the footage didn't end up in the final cut. Much of it has to do with the character Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o), who was originally meant to have a much larger role, and that would naturally include more involving Rey and Luke Skywalker. So where did all of that footage go? Will we ever get a chance to see it? J.J. Abrams says that you will....or at least some of it.

While attending the Television Critics Association event, Abrams revealed the Star Wars: The Force Awakens home release will have some deleted scenes. What you won't be getting, unfortunately, is any kind of director's cut.

“There will be deleted scenes, but not an extended version. I don’t know what the longest cut was. Probably, if it were with credits, close to two hours and 50 minutes was the first cut.”

That's more than 30 minutes longer than the theatrical version we saw, meaning there could be substantial amounts of deleted footage on the Blu-Ray and DVD. If this were George Lucas all we'd have to do is wait a few years and he'd eventually put out an "Extended Edition" with all of that footage put back in, but Disney may not be inclined to do that. We'll just have to wait and see. More info probably won't be available until a release date is announced, which hopefully will be soon. [EW]